The use of modern communication devices has become more and more pervasive in society. In particular, mobile phones have become wide-spread, with almost every person having access to a mobile phone in some regions. Other no commonly available forms of communication include Voice-over-IP telephony, short message services (SMS) or e-mail communication, which is also available on mobile devices. A common aspect of these types of communication is that the subscriber can be reached by a unique identification feature, which may have the form of a telephone number or a cellular phone number or e-mail address, an IP address or other user identification codes. In order to be reachable by another person, it is generally necessary to exchange contact details which may comprise such an identification feature. The contact information can be exchanged manually, for example by a person writing down a telephone number, or electronically, for example by sending a SMS to a mobile phone comprising contact details. Mobile phones generally comprise a feature that discloses the phone number of a person calling and may be stored for further communication.
More modern devices are capable of exchanging contact information by means of an electronic business card (vCard). The vCard can comprise information such as a name of a person, an address and a telephone number. The vCard may be entered into the phone book of the mobile phone receiving the vCard. The user of the receiving phone may then use the vCard to contact its owner. The vCard can for example be transmitted by using a wireless transmission protocol such as Bluetooth.
With the above methods of exchanging contact information, the person receiving the contact information can store the contact information on the receiving device. The user is thus given the option to always contact the person or device designated in the contact information. Furthermore, there is no restriction on the user sharing the contact information with other users. Providing the user receiving the contact information with such possibilities is not always desired. A person may not wish that his contact details are shared with other persons. Further, it is desirable that the person receiving the contact information is not allowed to always be able to contact the sender. Accordingly, there is the need to control access to such contact information, so that the use of the contact information is restricted.